


It's Familiar

by ObscureReference



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Amnesia, Kissing, M/M, Multi, Non-Linear Narrative, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-17 22:47:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21950941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObscureReference/pseuds/ObscureReference
Summary: The man—whose name Owain had still not caught—chuckled. “It’s alright. I know what you did, even if you don’t recall. It was appreciated. You’re a good man, Owain.”“I—Thank you?”“It really has been nice seeing you again.”Owain blinked. “Uh…”The inside of his skull itched something crazy.
Relationships: Leon | Leo/Odin/Zero | Niles
Comments: 14
Kudos: 115





	It's Familiar

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kimium](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kimium/gifts).



> Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate, and Happy Holidays to those of you who don't! I know I've been posting a little less recently, but I'm no less in love with Fates than I was before Three Houses got released! So don't worry about that! More Fates content is incoming as my free time allows!
> 
> Anyway, this is a Christmas gift for my friend Kimium! (Same name on ao3 and tumblr, for those of you who want to give her fics a check. She writes a lot of Fates stuff too, if you don't know her already!) Honestly, she has the patience and understanding of a saint, and I'm really glad to have met her! To show my appreciation, this is a Christmas gift based on the prompt "Niles and Leo's turn to pine after Owain."
> 
> This is a bit non-traditional in terms of pining though. I know traditional pining is also very good, but although I was given a few prompts, I kept coming back to this one and thinking of the below scenario. I don't want to say too much without spoiling, but do note it can be read in tandem with my other fic [But Not Too Not Familiar](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13941726). Can also be read separately though! So it works however you want. Note the non-linear timeline tag though!
> 
> I hope you enjoy! And I hope this fulfills a little bit of what you wanted, @Kimium! I promise to write more traditional pining sometime soon!

_OWAIN_

He tugged at a lock of his hair in the mirror. The barely-there beginnings of a curl, curtesy of his mother, indicated it was time for a haircut. On top of a shorter length, however, he was imagining another change as well.

“Knock, knock,” Niles said, tapping his knuckle against the bathroom doorway. Owain’s instantly perked up, making eye contact with Niles in the mirror.

“Niles!” he said. “When did you get back?”

“Just a moment ago.” Niles rolled his neck with an easygoing smirk. “What are you doing in here?”

Owain hummed. “Tell me. Have you ever considered… a change?”

Niles paused for a moment, considering. His eye flickered to Owain’s hand in his hair.

“Are you thinking about dying your hair?” he asked.

Owain beamed. “Precisely! You, who have been blessed with hair fine as starlight, can surely understand my plight!”

“While I do appreciate the compliment, I don’t think we’d look very good matching,” Niles said dryly.

“Of course not!” Owain was almost offended. “I would never simply _copy_ the looks of another!”

Niles crossed his arms and leaned against the doorway. “Of course. How silly of me. How could I forget that you pride yourself on uniqueness?”

Owain turned and pointed. “I know that’s a backhanded comment, but I’m going to ignore that for now.” He faced Niles fully, leaning his lower back against the bathroom counter. “Now, tell me honestly. What other hair colors can you see me in?”

Nilles paused, perhaps assessing him. Some of the amusement slid off his features.

“Well, I _have_ always liked blonds,” he said slowly. There was something… perhaps hesitant about his voice. Testing.

Owain snorted and dropped his hand. “You want me blond? Like Leo?”

Not that there was anything _wrong_ with having blond hair. Leo certainly sported it well. It just wasn’t at all what Owain had been imagining.

“Your mother is blond too,” Niles defended. “It would probably look natural on you.” He frowned, pausing again, so briefly Owain wondered if he was imagining it. “Then what color were _you_ thinking about?”

“I’m not sure yet.” He turned and eyed himself in the mirror yet again, wrinkling his nose. “Blue would look pretty good, I think?”

Niles snorted, rolling his eyes. “Blue?”

“Imagine it. I’d look so heroic!”

“Like a hero from a video game, you mean? Please.”

Owain made an unimpressed face. Niles wandered into the bathroom with an affectionate huff, slipping his arms around Owain’s shoulders. When he leaned in to kiss Owain’s cheek, however, Owain leaned away.

“Oh, what?” Niles teased. “Are you mad because I laughed at your blue hair idea?”

“Naysayers do not deserve kisses,” he grumbled.

Niles chuckled and leaned in for another kiss. Owain resisted for a moment. But Niles was persisted, and the press of his lips against Owain’s cheek felt quite sweet in the end.

“If you want to dye your hair, be my guest,” Niles said, some amusement still in his voice. “But you’ll probably have to run it by Leo first.”

Owain hadn’t thought that far ahead.

“Aw, shoot,” he said as Niles laughed. 

_LEO_

“Thank you, but no,” Leo said dryly. “I’m afraid I have other obligations this evening.”

As Owain began to deflate, Niles, the traitor, asked, “What obligations?”

Leo turned to the next page without raising his head. “I think it’s my turn to take out the trash. Or something.”

“Leo!” Owain whined. Maybe one day Leo would be used to the way Owain said his name now, but today wasn’t it. “Don’t you want to _see_ an action-packed night of adventure rather than just reading about it for once?”

Leo did not know what sort of books Owain thought he read, and he deliberately did not ask.

He looked up from his book with a sigh and pretended to think about it. “A night of near hearing loss from listening to ninety minutes of explosions does sound appealing, now that you mention it.”

“Yes!” Owain cheered. “That’s the spirit! I’ll go buy tickets right now!”

The sarcasm had completely gone over his head. Leo tried to call him back, but Owain had already dashed back to the bedroom to get on the computer. Leo sighed again.

“Is it so bad to humor him?” Niles asked with a familiar smirk, voice pitched just low enough that it wouldn’t carry. “I doubt you’d really lose your hearing anyway.”

Leo shot him a sidelong glance. “I know for a fact that if you weren’t obligated elsewhere tonight, you’d be saying the same thing as me right now.”

“But I am, so you’re on your own.” Niles’s smirk grew. Sprawled across the couch in a lazy, cat-like way, he nudged Leo’s thigh with his foot. “Reviews say this one averages at about one to two explosions per minute. For the whole film. Start to finish.”

Leo could feel a headache coming on already.

“Did you look that up just now?”

Niles grinned at his phone without letting Leo see the screen. “I recommend earplugs.”

“Owain!” Leo called back to the bedroom. Maybe he could still stop this. “Did you buy the tickets yet?”

“Getting the receipt right now!” Owain said, out of sight.

Leo’s shoulders drooped.

“Look on the bright side,” said Niles. “Now he’s obligated to see that detective film you’re pretending you’re not foaming at the mouth over.”

Leo objected to Niles's word choice but ignored it for now.

“That is a fair enough trade,” he considered. Then he eyed Niles. “You know you’re obligated to see it too, now.”

“Why me too?” 

“Because you’re too smug about this, and I say so.”

“Damn,” Niles drawled. “You’ve got me pinned.”

Niles nudged Leo’s thigh again, so Leo grabbed his ankle, rubbing his thumb along the top of Niles’s sock with one hand as he searched for where he’d left off in his book in the other. They were both pretending not to smile.

After a minute, Owain came practically skipping back into the living room. “Done! We now have front row seats to the best movie of the year. Can you believe half the tickets weren’t even sold yet? It’s too bad you can’t come with us, Niles.”

“A real shame,” Niles said, shamelessly.

Leo said, “When you say front row…”

“Front and center!” Owain said with pride. Leo could already feel phantom pains in his neck joining the preemptive ringing in his ears. “This is going to be great! Hey, Leo, you remember what happened in the movie before this one, right?”

Unfortunately, he did remember. Leo couldn’t recall if Owain had forced them to watch that movie too, or if he’d simply heard Owain recount the story so much that he could picture it himself. Either way, he was sadly familiar with the material.

Still, it was hard to dread the evening so much when Owain stood there, looking so excited. Relationships were about give and take anyway. Leo had learned that a long, long time ago. The memory made him soften a little.

So he breathed in through his nose and found himself smiling when he met Owain’s gaze, laying his book aside. “Why don’t you remind me?”

There was obviously nothing Owain would have enjoyed more. Niles pulled up his legs so Owain could plop onto the couch between them. He laid his legs across Owain’s lap when he was seated, and Owain took up the role of absently rubbing Niles’s skin while turned towards Leo.

“Right! I could just recap the last movie, but this is the fifth installment in the series, so it’s better to start from the beginning. So—”

Leo only caught half of what was said, an already incomprehensible, nonsense storyline made even more convoluted through Owain’s long-winded style of explaining. But Owain seemed to enjoy himself immensely and Niles took a much needed nap about forty-five minutes in to his rambling, so Leo considered it an afternoon well spent.

And although the movie ended up being just as awful as he expected, Owain gripped Leo’s hands tight during the height of the excitement, and his eyes sparkled as he recounted the whole movie again, beat by beat, on the drive home.

Leo considered it one of their better dates.

_NILES_

When the other body in the bed started to rise up on its elbows, Niles awoke from the haze.

He wouldn’t have called it sleep. But even with his tired, tired brain stuffed with cotton, he laid his arm across Owain’s back on instinct and pushed him back down.

Leo had done the same thing, he realized after a moment. Their hands were laid parallel along Owain’s bare back.

Owain flopped back onto the bed, face first. Sunlight streamed in through the half-closed curtains above them.

After all this time, Od—Owain still slept face down. Niles still couldn’t imagine how he did it. 

“Going somewhere?” Leo asked, voice low and thick with sleep.

Niles couldn’t see Leo’s face over the rise of Owain’s back, but he could imagine what it looked like; he also imagined Leo hadn’t caught an more sleep than he had.

Owain pressed his face a little deeper into his pillow, sounding content when he replied, “Nope.”

Good.

Although it felt like a lifetime ago now, they had only met—or found or whatever verb was appropriate—Owain the day before. There hadn’t been any time to talk in private since then, but Leo and Niles were past the point of needing to verbally hash out every little detail to be sure they were on the same page. At least when it came to this.

Even without speaking, Niles knew they wouldn’t be letting Owain go again without a fight.

Hence the two arms laying on Owain's back at the moment, keeping him pressed against he mattress. 

Nothing about the day before felt real. Stumbling into Owain, coaxing him to chat for a while, how easily he followed them back to their apartment after an hour or two, how easier still how he followed them back to the bedroom after dinner—Niles was still expecting to wake up. To discover the universe was pulling the rug out from under him again.

Which probably explained the fact he hadn’t slept all night. Even with the undeniable heat of an extra body squeezed between them, Niles couldn’t allow himself to be distracted. He never would have forgiven himself if he woke up and found a cold, empty space in the sheets where someone else should have been. The hours had passed at a snail’s pace, and yet Niles felt like he had merely blinked to find the sun had risen once more.

His good eye felt dry. His body felt drained.

Even more drained than the night before, when he'd slunk into the bathroom under the guise of cleaning up and found himself shedding a few tears over the sink—the only tears Niles could remember shedding since that night with Leo in the kitchen. But now Niles felt a different sort of drained. Still raw and wrung-out, yes. A little emptiness mingled with the disbelief in his chest. He probably could have benefited from even a thirty-minute nap after all.

Then Owain shifted under the arm Niles hadn’t bothered to remove. He flipped onto his side, and Niles found himself looking at a face he hadn’t seen in so, so long.

He forced himself to speak first.

“Good morning. You’re an antsy one, aren’t you?” It had taken a lot out of him to keep up the façade of control the day before, but somehow it came a little easier this time. “Ready for round two already? It’s a little early, but…”

He trailed off meaningfully. In truth, Niles didn't think he had enough energy to stand, nonetheless other activities. 

“I—“ Owain pressed his face into the pillow again to hide a yawn. “—have never backed down from a challenge. Even that of early risers.” His eyes were shut. “I will gladly accept… in an hour or two…”

He was already falling asleep. Without looking away, Niles felt Leo shift, pulling himself a little closer to Owain’s side. Niles did the same. Neither removed their arms from Owain’s back.

For a moment, Niles let his eye fall shut. He let his head tilt a little more into the sheets.

He opened his eye again, blearily.

Nope. He still couldn’t sleep on his face like Odin could.

_OWAIN_

“Excuse me. Is this seat taken?”

Owain looked up. The man standing next to him was tall, and his hair had been dyed an interesting shade of blue. His brain skimmed over the rest of the details of his face before they could be fully registered.

“Not at all!” Owain said, perhaps too loudly for the quiet of the park. “So long as you think you can resist the sickening miasma of my dark aura. I’ve been told it can be quite devastating in power. It’s inescapable, I’m afraid. Deadly, if you're not prepared.”

If his friends had been present, they might have chided him for speaking that way to a stranger. Owain had gotten more than a few strange looks for it before, but he couldn't help it. He was too deep into narration mode to jump right out of it so easily.

Part of him wondered if the stranger would make an excuse to run away like a few people had before, though Owain meant the offer sincerely.

But the man chuckled instead of making a face. “I’ve faced my fair share of dark auras before, believe me.”

Owain gaped a little as the man softly sat down on the other half of the bench. Almost nobody ever played along with him. After a beat, he hastily turned back to his notebook. Better not to look a gift horse in the mouth—the gift being polite company, obviously.

The other man must have caught him sending curious glances, however, wondering about his backstory and admiring such a cool hair color, because the fifth time Owain sneakily looked his way, the man said, “What are you writing there?”

Owain snapped the notebook shut before his new neighbor could eye the pages. Inigo’s mocking voice asking _“Do the flames affect the pronunciation?”_ echoed in his ears.

“The Manual of Justice cannot be withstood with mortal eyes, I’m afraid,” he said. “But, if you really must know, I’m working on a tale to top all tales—a saga to end all sagas!”

“Oh, you’re a writer then.” The man nodded approvingly. “May I ask what genre you prefer? Science fiction? Adventure? Fantasy?”

“Fantasy adventure,” Owain confirmed. Really, those tiny words could not adequately describe his work, but he doubted this man would understand that. At the expectant look he received, however, he added, “It’s a dark and harrowing tale about revenge, the end of the world, and time travel.”

“Fascinating,” the man said. “I’d love to hear more.”

Owain waited for the other shoe to land. When it didn’t, he said, “Really?”

“Really,” the man assured him, a small smile on his lips. He looked genuine. “I’m no author myself, but I love hearing about the creativity of others. Please, go on.”

Owain felt himself straighten at the encouragement. “In that case, let me set the scene for you! Imagine the darkest and stormiest night you can. Now make it _darker_ and _stormier_. That, my new friend, is where our story begins. Within the depths of a large castle set in the eye of the storm, our hero has just been born…”

He knew he had been talking for a long time when his throat began to run dry. Even when he glanced at his phone and saw the better part of an hour had passed, however, the man never looked impatient or like he wanted Owain to wrap up already. He only ever interrupted to ask clarifying questions or tell Owain to go on.

It felt good, Owain realized, talking to somebody who genuinely wanted to hear what he had to say, especially when he went on for so long. Most people weren’t like that.

“And _that_ would be the stopping point for the first novel,” he finished some time later. “I have the others all planned out, of course, but…”

“Of course.” The man nodded his head towards the notebook in Owain’s lap, which he had eventually opened at some point over the last half our to point out character notes. “You’re still working on them.”

Owain had mostly been thinking about how he didn’t have another three hours to dive into books two through four, but that was true too.

“Quite,” he said. “Perfection takes time, however! I would stand for nothing less.”

“Understandable. I appreciate you giving me a sneak preview of your work before publication.”

“So long as you promise to purchase my book when it comes out officially,” he added.

The man chuckled. “I’ll be keeping my eye out for when the time comes.”

Owain beamed. Something about the man’s demeanor made him think that was true.

A thought struck him.

“By the way,” he said, “I don’t think I caught your—”

“Well, I must be going now,” the man said, abruptly standing up. “I apologize for taking up so much of your time, but I really do appreciate your sharing so much with me. I enjoyed seeing you again, Owain. Thank you.”

“Of course! Thanks for lending me your ear! I—” Owain caught himself. “Wait, sorry, have we met before?”

“Yes, though I’d be surprised if you remembered.” He smiled. The back of Owain’s skull prickled. “I wanted to say thank you for the favor you did for me then, as well as for talking to me today. It’s been pleasant.”

“No problem,” Owain said, still a little confused. “Though if you could remind me what I did for you, exactly…”

The man—whose name Owain had still not caught—chuckled. “It’s alright. I know what you did, even if you don’t recall. It was appreciated. You’re a good man, Owain.”

“I—Thank you?”

“It really has been nice seeing you again.”

Owain blinked. “Uh…”

The inside of his skull itched something crazy. Like he should have remembered whatever favor he’d done for this man after all, even if the rest of him was certain this was the first time they had met.

The stranger quickly squeezed Owain’s shoulder in a friendly gesture and then walked away.

“Wait!” Owain stood up and took half a step after him. “I still don’t know your—”

“Owain?”

Owain’s shoulders jerked in surprise. He spun.

Leo and Niles stood behind the bench, hands clasped between them. They were both frowning.

“Is something wrong?” Niles asked, squinting into the distance. Owain followed his gaze, but somehow the man he’d been talking to was already almost out of sight.

Leo’s voice nearly overlapped Niles’s as he asked, “Do you know that man?”

“No,” Owain said slowly. He looked back at them and, more normally, said, “No, I don’t know him. But he knew me, I think.”

“You think?” Leo repeated. He and Niles let their hands drop as they rounded either side of the bench.

Niles slipped his arm around Owain’s waist. Face still serious, Leo picked Owain’s dropped notebook.

“You don’t sound to sure about that,” Niles said before he pressed a kiss against Owain’s temple.

“He thanked me for something I don’t remember doing," Owain said.

Leo tucked the notebook and pen away in his shoulder bag. “That sounds suspicious.”

“I think he was genuine, actually.” Owain looked in the direction he’d left but couldn’t see the stranger anymore.

He blinked. The urgency that had been prickling so incessantly in the back of his mind had faded. A new prickling had replaced it.

“Oh! Actually, that gives me an idea!”

“For your book?” Niles asked, the corners of his mouth curling up in a familiar look. He and Leo exchanged a look with each other. Owain ignored them.

“Yes!” he crowed. “A mysterious encounter where one party knows more than the other—that’d be perfect for this next scene!”

“Wonderful,” Leo said, somewhere between exasperated and affectionate. The affectionate part won out as he slipped his hand into Owain’s. Now Owain was caught between them. “You can tell us about it while we walk back.”

“Have you eaten?” Niles asked.

“Have you?” Owain countered. He knew there was leftovers at home.

Niles shrugged, at ease. “I could go for a sandwich.”

“Then he’ll tell us more over lunch,” Leo amended. “Come on. Isn’t there a little sandwich place over here?”

“You have a better memory than I, dear,” Niles said, which they all knew was a lie. Leo smiled at him sweetly anyway.

Leo was the one so often tucked between Owain and Niles, but Owain didn’t mind the way their positions had been flipped this time. With Niles tucked firmly against one side and Leo holding his hand so tightly it ached a little when he let go to open the door to the shop, Owain found that the cool breezes of autumn were kept firmly at bay.

_LEO_

Leo considered it a blessing that Niles found him again so soon into their new lives. It must have been a work of fate, he considered. Or maybe a case of hard work and the devil’s luck paying off. Or perhaps simply a case of history repeating itself with those who did not learn from it.

Because it was certainly true that Leo had lived in ignorance back then, totally oblivious to the empty spaces on either side of him where two other people should have been. His ignorance lasted until the night he’d stumbled downstairs for a cup of water and found a shadowy figure standing in his kitchen.

Leo gasped when the shadow moved. Even then, he’d been too old to believe in the ghost stories Camilla teased him with. Too old to believe in monsters that lurked in the dark like Elise. But nobody outgrew fear itself, and when the darkness reached out and grabbed his wrist, he knew to be afraid.

Something kept him from screaming, however, even when the shadow moved and he saw it had a face after all.

When he realized it was a boy just as small as him, he stared.

“I found you,” the shadow whispered.

Leo blinked. Some of the boy's features came into focus. 

And then he remembered everything.

It had taken half a second for a lifetime to pass behind his eyelids. Nohr, the war, his siblings, the secret world, the silent dragon, the peace that came after, Odin, _Niles_ —

“Niles,” Leo breathed. His gaze lingered on the eyepatch Niles already wore despite their youth. Had he been too late to save Niles the worst of his pain yet again?

He would later learn that there had been no fight this time around. Niles had simply been born without an eye. Leo would wonder at the significance of that, later. If there was any significance to it at all.

But that was for the morning. There, in the dark, he felt Niles’s fingers twitch around his wrist. His unhidden eye grew large as the moon, expression a mixture of relief and excitement and every other emotion that was suddenly swirling around Leo’s head as well.

“ _Leo_ ,” Niles said, strangled with relief. “I found you.”

“You found me,” Leo confirmed, dazed. He opened his arms, and Niles instantly threw himself against Leo, burying his face into Leo’s neck and breathing him in, ten year of separation coming to a head all at once. Leo wrapped his arms around him and tangled his fingers in Niles’s hair without hesitation. “How did you—When did you—”

Niles’s nose was cold against Leo’s neck. He was also barefoot, Leo realized.

“I found you,” Niles said again.

Leo’s head spun with new memories, with the feel of Niles pressed against him, so small and strange and yet still familiar. “I didn’t remember. I’m sorry I didn’t remember. If I had, I would have—Have you seen anyone else? Odin?”

“I found you,” Niles breathed, arms tightening around him. “I found you. I _found_ you. I…”

“Shh,” Leo whispered as Niles choked. He’d never been the comforting type, but he stroked Niles’s hair anyway. “You found me. It’s okay. It’s fine.”

“Leo…”

“I’m here,” he said, suddenly years and years older than his clumsy child body could handle. He was staring at a spot on the ceiling, willing the earth to stop moving. “You’re here. I'm here. I’ve got you.”

They stayed like that, huddled in the kitchen until morning. At some point Leo lowered them both onto the cold tile floor, and eventually Niles’s breathing returned to mostly normal. If he refused to take his eye off Leo, well, Leo was doing a lot of staring himself too.

At some point, he swallowed. “It’s just you and me so far, right? You haven’t…”

“Nobody else,” Niles confirmed.

Leo steeled himself with a deep breath. 

“That’s alright,” he said. “There must be others. My whole family is here, and so are you. It can’t be just us. That’d be impossible.”

The fact they were back at all was impossible. Their memories were impossible. But Odin had been made of impossibility, so Leo refused to think he hadn’t come back too.

Niles nodded. Leo clutched him close.

He hadn’t known how badly he been missing this until suddenly he had it again. He couldn’t bare the thought of ever losing Niles or his memory ever again.

Camilla had been the first one to come down that next morning. Already a teenager, she bounded down the stairs in her stylish pajamas with more coordination than Leo’s still rounded limbs could manage at that point, tiredly ruffling her hair. She stopped in the kitchen doorway.

“Leo," she said, "who is—”

Then she stared, stricken, and in that moment, Leo knew that Camilla was remembering too.

He barely paid attention to the thundering pound of her footsteps as she careened back upstairs to pound on Xander’s door. Leo only gripped Niles’s hand tighter.

The rest, as they say, was history.

_NILES_

“Aw, jeez, sorry,” Odin said.

_Odin_.

Niles’s jaw dropped.

He was brunette now and his skin a little tanner than it had been in the cloudy climate of Nohr, but that was unmistakably Odin’s face, Odin’s eyes, Odin’s _voice._ Here, in the flesh.

Niles choked on Odin’s name, air refusing to escape his lips. He couldn’t stop staring.

Oblivious, Odin leaned down to pick his fallen phone off the sidewalk. He dusted it off and, frowning at his now crumbled slice of sweet bread, which he’d also dropped after literally running into Niles, tossed it into a nearby trashcan. Niles watched his every move.

“Oh, no,” he said, somewhere in the approximation of normal, thinking _look at me, look at me, look at me_. “The fault was all mine.”

Odin turned.

_Yes_ , Niles thought viciously as their eyes met.

But there was no recognition on his face. He didn’t pale or gasp or even _blink_. Odin just nodded at him the way someone would acknowledge a stranger and then began to step away, eyeing his phone.

Niles’s heart stopped. _No, no, no._

Niles couldn’t lose him again. Not when he was so _close_.

“Wait,” he said, brain working in overdrive as he caught Odin by the arm. “Let me buy you another pastry.”

Odin blinked. “Oh, I don’t think—”

“I insist,” Niles said. His fingers curled protectively around Odin’s bicep.

He would have said anything—done anything—in that moment to keep Odin’s eyes on him. He waited for the recognition to set in.

It didn’t. He swallowed thickly.

There was a godo chance he as going to be sick.

“It was my fault,” Odin said, frowning slightly, but Niles had already begun ushering him back inside the shop. Odin didn’t fight the movement, so Niles released his arm. His hand drifted to Odin’s lower back as they walked.

He couldn’t help it. Muscle memory.

Odin’s light protests died as they walked inside. Was it a sign, Niles wondered? Did he think Niles familiar at all? Were Odin’s memories settling in slowly rather than hitting him in a flash, as they had with Leo?

Niles steered them away from the counter and toward one of the occupied tables. He hoped Leo would one day forgive him for the surprise.

(He still wasn’t sure Leo had.)

“Leo,” he said, putting his faith in Leo’s ability to put two and two together very quickly without Niles having to explain. He tried to get the shaking of his hands under control. “Look at who the cat dragged in.”

Leo looked up from his book. His breath audibly caught.

_I know_ , he thought, begging Leo to see the words in in his eye. _I know, I’m sorry, but_ look _at him._

“Oh, shit,” Odin gasped. Niles and Leo’s heads both jerked in surprise. “You’ve got one already? I’ve been looking through stores for _weeks_. Is that a signed copy?”

He meant the book, Niles realized dully. Everything was still being filtered through a lens of shock and disappointment. Even Odin’s voice sounded farther away than it should have.

But even if he didn’t remember them, he was _here_ , Niles reminded himself. And now they had a hook to keep him interested in staying.

Odin was leaning over the table before either of them could move. He was all up in Leo’s space— _like they always used to be_ , Niles registered—peering over the cover of the book, heedless of how his face was to Leo’s. He examined the upside-down words with interest. Leo stared, obviously caught off guard.

Niles chest ached. He wanted to say _I know_.

Neither he nor Leo could speak, it seemed, so it was Odin who realized his faux paus first.

“Ah, sorry,” he said sheepishly, pulling back. Niles caught him with a hand on Odin’s lower back once more. “I got too excited for a second there.”

He flashed Leo a smile. Leo stared back, practically aghast. Niles couldn’t fault him for the sudden blunder in acting.

“You’re fine,” Leo said absently. His wide eyes drifted towards Niles’s face. “Niles…”

Niles couldn’t help himself. He’d never been a man of much restraint.

He hooked his arm around Odin’s waist, pulling him close enough that their sides were pressed together.

It was too forward a move for strangers, he knew, but Odin didn’t seem to mind. He looked at Niles curiously but didn’t pull away. A seed of hope began to blossom in Niles’s chest. Perhaps Odin was remembering after all.

If that was the case, then…

He shifted his weight and leaned down to hook his chin on Odin’s shoulder. “Why don’t you two get acquainted while I buy you a treat, hm?”

Leo wore an unreadable look. A bit of color had crept back into his cheeks, however, so Niles assumed he was getting over his shock. He wasn’t surprised; Leo’s cool head had saved them plenty of times before.

Before.

He pushed the memories away.

Niles had a fairly cool head himself, he thought, but, selfishly, he needed a few minutes to get over his own shock. Preferably at the counter, where no one could see his face.

“Just so we’re clear,” Odin said, eyes flickering between the two of them, “are you guys inviting me into a three-way or—”

Leo choked. Loudly.

Niles felt a bit of hysteria rise in himself as well. Instinct guided him to squeeze Odin’s hip, suddenly filled with so much affection it almost overwhelmed him.

“Shoot,” Odin said, sounding bizarrely unsure of himself. Niles could count on one hand the number of times he remembered Odin sounding so banal as to be _uncertain._ It was Odin’s voice, but not his tone. _Definitely_ not his words. When had Odin ever said "shoot"? Niles’s head spun as he heard Odin continue, saying, “Okay, sorry, that wasn’t what you meant. I’ll go—"

“No!” Leo said, much too loudly for the little café they were in, as Niles’s grip on Odin’s waist tightened.

The noise in the café dipped for a moment before picking up again. Leo shook his head, blinking hard. When he opened his eyes again, he looked more composed.

_There you are_ , Niles thought.

“That won’t be necessary,” Leo said calmly. “Please forgive me. I simply had a momentary lapse of—” He hesitated so briefly it was nearly imperceptible. “Memory.”

“I… think I misread the situation here,” Odin said. It wasn’t Odin, not at all, but it _was_. “Uh, thanks, but—”

“The situation is exactly as it appears to be,” Niles said quickly, letting Odin draw his own conclusions. “You should stay.”

He looked at Leo. A million things passed between them before Leo said, “Niles offered to buy you something, right? He’ll go do that now. Let’s sit.”

Leo was already sitting. Despite his reluctance a moment before and seemingly without much thought, Odin plopped into the seat across from him. His eyes were filled with curiosity. The go with the flow type, even now, it seemed.

As Odin left his arms, Niles leaned down to kiss Leo at his hairline. Leo absently reached up and brushed Niles’s cheek with his hand, too preoccupied with staring to spare him a glance. Niles couldn’t blame him.

The tremors in Niles’s hands, which had nearly faded before, returned full forced. He pulled himself away from their table and moved toward the line at the counter, forcing himself not to look back.

He stood behind a frumpy looking man in a business suit and shoves his hands in his pockets, practicing breathing through his nose. Leo and Odin’s voices were still audible over the ambient noises of the shop.

“So,” Leo said. “I’m afraid I didn’t catch your name.”

“It’s Owain.”

_Owain,_ Niles mentally repeated. _Owain._

It was different.

When he returned to their table a few short minutes later, a pumpkin muffin for Odin and a drink in hand for Leo, he found them engrossed in a discussion about the novel Leo had purchased.

“Oh,” Odin said, sounding pleased when Niles cut into their conversation to hand them both their items. “Thanks! Pumpkin’s my favorite.”

_I know_ , Niles didn’t say. He bit his tongue.

“Thank you,” Leo said softly, taking a sip of his drink as Niles sat in the chair closest to him, throwing a deliberately casual arm around Leo’s shoulders. “What were you saying, Owain?”

_Owain_ , Niles reminded himself. _Not Odin. Owain._

It was still different.

But perhaps, he thought, watching Odin devour his new muffin with a familiar vigor, feeling Odin’s foot clumsily meet his under the table, watching they Leo and Odin brushed hands when they passed the book back and forth—

Perhaps, he thought, the difference was not unbearable.

Only time would tell.

_OWAIN_

“You don’t eat red apples,” Leo said. He’d paused in the middle of putting away some groceries, and now his hands were hidden inside a reusable canvas bag. He was looking at Owain with intent, however.

Owain glanced at the half-eaten fruit in his hand. It was still red.

He took another bite and, mouth full of fruit, said, “But I like apples?”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Leo said absently. Like a corrective reflex. He was still frowning at the apple like it had personally offended him. “I know you like apples. But you don’t eat red apples.”

Owain shrugged and swallowed. “An apple is an apple.”

“Red and green apples are completely different,” Leo said, wrinkling his nose. “The texture, the flavor—"

“They are the most dynamic of fruits, and I respect them for that.”

“Sure, but you don’t _eat_ them.”

Owain could have laughed. “Except I do?”

“Sure, but not _red_ ones.”

“Leo, no offense,” he said, “but I think I’d know what food I do and don’t like.” He smiled to show he wasn’t annoyed, but some of the confusion had clearly seeped into his tone.

That gave Leo pause. Sounding almost unsure of himself, he said, “But, I remember..." He paused. "You said you didn’t like them. They’re too soft.”

Owain cocked his head. “When did I say that?”

Leo looked startled at the question. He resumed unpacking two cans of pasta sauce from one of the grocery bags, but his movements were much slower than they had been before.

“I…” Leo blinked. “I guess I’m misremembering.”

Leo didn’t have more to add to that, so Owain shrugged. He took another quick bite of his snack and helped unpack the rest of the groceries, sneaking more mouthfuls of apple between bags. By the time they were finished, he was tossing the core into the trash.

“Groceries, conquered,” Owain announced, setting the now empty bags aside. “Operation: Make Dinner Before Niles Gets Here will commence in one hour.”

Leo flashed a smile, but he looked distracted. “Sounds good.” He paused, sending Owain a look he probably thought went unnoticed. “I think I’m going to lay down for a while, if that’s alright.”

“Sure,” Owain said easily. “I can get started by myself later if you’re still sleeping by then.”

“No, no.” Leo shook his head. “Just wake me up if I’m not up in an hour.”

“Okay.”

Leo wandered back into the bedroom and shut the door gently behind him.

Leaning against the kitchen counter, Owain felt his eyes drift to the trash can of their own volition. He didn’t open the lid, but he knew the apple core was still sitting inside, right on top of the other trash.

Their exchange about Owain’s preferred tastes had been a little weird, he thought. But not _too_ weird.

On the scale of weird things that had come up in his relationship with Leo and Niles so far, he had definitely noticed weirder.

He hadn’t mentioned most of the things aloud. It had only been three months, after all. They were still getting to know each other. Owain had never dated two people at once before, but if dating one another person took an adjustment period, it probably took twice as long or felt twice as strange when you were dating two people, right? And anyway, he wasn’t sure if Niles and Leo had ever opened their relationship up to another person before either. And they had been together for, like, _ever_. So obviously there were bound to be some oddities—like Leo misremembering his food preferences. Which, in all honesty, could happen between friends and family too.

Or the way Niles looked at him sometimes when he thought Owain wasn’t looking.

Or how Leo had said no, Owain didn’t really speak that strangely at all, and actually he could get a little weirder with it if he really wanted. 

Or how Niles once said it was weird how _not_ weird—“tame” had been the word he’d used—Owain acted, even when they weren’t in public.

Yeah, Owain was still trying to figure out what that meant. For a minute there he’d almost mistaken it for a sex thing. Niles had insisted it wasn’t an insult, even though it kind of felt like it. He’d seemed almost embarrassed at having said it, especially when Owain questioned him. So Owain had let it drop, although he was still mulling around the idea that Niles was inviting him to be… what, more outspoken? Was that what Leo had meant too? Did they both have a problem with the way he spoke or something?

Owain had already gotten enough flack for his tendency towards outbursts in high school. Part of writing a book had been so he could put those parts of himself in a novel instead of the air around him. Maybe Niles and Leo would get that without his having to say anything at some point. 

Anyway, there were a couple strange things Owain had noticed in the last few months. Like the apple thing.

Owain liked all kinds of apples. He wasn’t sure why Leo would think otherwise.

But little mix-ups like that didn’t hurt anything, did they? And Owain was still learning about who Niles and Leo were as people too. He liked them a lot, but even he didn’t know all the foods they each liked or didn’t like yet. Little moments like that stuck out to him as being strange, but he figured double the partners meant double the little quirks. It didn’t really mean anything.

After a few minutes of letting his mind wander, Owain flopped onto the couch that had come to feel like his own. A few text exchanges and one streamed TV episode later, he knocked on the bedroom door and woke Leo up. 

Owain made the pasta, and Leo made the salad. There were a lot of tomatoes in the salad, he noted. Then he remembered how much Leo liked tomatoes.

It was nice to know things, he thought. Cooking dinner together was nice too.

Neither of them mentioned apples, and when Niles got home, neither did he.

_LEO_

“He’s… different,” Leo said carefully, apropos nothing.

Niles understood what he meant without asking.

“He’s not the same,” he agreed.

“No. But he’s…”

_Similar_ , Leo had meant to say. It was true enough. Looking at Owain was almost like looking at—not a ghost, but a distorted video, perhaps. A movie with inverted colors and audio that almost synched up to the lip movement on screen except for when it didn’t.

There had been more than a few times Owain had said in the last few weeks that had rocked Leo from sheer unfamiliarity. Not because the meaning behind the words wasn’t something he couldn’t imagine Odin saying but because the _way_ Owain said it had been so… unlike the Odin that Leo remembered.

If Owain ever did dye his hair blond like Niles suggested, Leo wondered if the sight would be the punch he imagined it would.

“I’ve changed,” Niles pointed out. “You’ve changed. We haven’t stayed the same either. Nothing is the same forever.”

That was true enough. Leo carried around a cell phone instead of a spell book these days, for one thing. Personally, he thought they weren’t that different. But Niles’s point stood.

Owain had changed in a way he and Niles hadn’t, but neither of them said they would have rather had this version of Odin than nothing at all. It went without saying.

The rest of the afternoon passed in silence.

_NILES_

“Penny for your thoughts?” he asked. “Or would you rather something else?”

He meant it salaciously. The double meaning seemed to float over Owain’s head as the man in question looked up from his very serious task of twirling a pen around his fingers with a grin.

“Niles! Would you mind doing me a favor and reading this outline to see if it makes sense?”

“Sure.” Niles slipped his arms around Owain’s shoulders from behind and leaned against the back of his chair. “What am I looking at here? The notes for your next chapter?”

Owain’s novel was probably going to be eight billion pages before he finally considered it finished. Niles had never expected anything less.

“Basically,” Owain said. A very simple answer for a man who had once not been so simple at all. Although Niles was starting to think he might have been guilty of simplifying Owain too much as well. Biases did that. He'd been trying to work on that part of himself since he'd noticed it. “I think I have the next part figured out, but I want to see if this fight comes too much out of nowhere or if—”

The pen he’d been twirling around slipped out of his hand and bounced off Niles’s forehead.

Owain’s mouth dropped into an ‘O’ shape.

“Thank you for that,” Niles said dryly, struggling not to smile at the surprised expression on Owain’s face.

The surprise broke, and Owain laughed. “Sorry!

Niles shook his head fondly. He picked the pen off the floor and leaned over the side of the desk. “Should I just start from the beginning or what?”

“If you don’t mind.” Owain turned back a few pages in the notebook and indicated with his finger where the chapter began. “Here.”

Niles grunted an acknowledgement. His eye scanned the page.

It only took a moment before he realized he wasn’t registering the words at all. It was mid-afternoon, and light shone in through the open blinds of the window. Out of the corner of his eye, Niles could see Owain illuminated in golden rays. He swallowed.

Owain was clearly waiting for him to turn the page or make a note somewhere. Instead, Niles set the pen down and stood up straight.

“Is something wrong?” Owain asked.

Niles looked at him—perhaps more seriously than he should have. “Hey."

"Hey," Owain echoed, smiling crookedly. 

Niles absently cracked his thumb. "You’re happy with this, right?”

Owain blinked. A beat passed. 

“With what, exactly?”

He had to have known what Niles meant, or at least had an inkling. Or so Niles thought. In truth, he wasn’t entirely sure what he was asking either. Only that it needed to be asked to settle the sudden onset of rolling waves in his stomach.

“With how things are,” he said. “You’re happy with this, right?”

“Yeah,” Owain said after a beat—one of the longest moments of Niles’s life. “Of course I’m happy. I would tell you if I wasn’t. Did I do something?”

“No." Niles shrugged, purposely easy. “Just checking in. I’m glad.”

He kissed Owain’s forehead, then his mouth. He had to bend down a lot because of the height difference, plus the fact Owain was sitting. Not that he cared. Owain kissed back, although he was still frowning a little when Niles pulled away.

“…Alright,” he said after a moment. “If you’re sure.”

“If _you’re_ sure,” Niles countered. His hand lingered on Owain’s shoulder, fingers curling towards the curve of his neck. “Don’t get me wrong, I am glad you came home with us and basically never left—”

“Hey! You make me sound like a stray dog—”

“—but I get we’ve been moving a little quickly,” Niles continued. His finger twitched. “Which I’m fine with. But I want to make sure _you’re_ fine with it.”

Looking a little contemplative, Owain shrugged. “It hasn’t felt that fast to me.”

Niles couldn’t restrain his smile then.

“Good. Then I really am glad.”

He kissed Owain again and might not have pulled back if not for the sound of the office door opening catching his attention.

“Hello there,” Leo said, mouth twitching as he saw the way Niles’s lips lingered against Owain’s. “By the looks of it, you’re both distracted and I get control of my desk back now, right?”

“You say that as though I ever use your office for anything,” Niles chuckled. Owain only ever stole a few hours here and there when he knew Leo didn’t need it anyway.

“You’re in here now, aren’t you?” Leo said playfully. He squeezed past them and set his laptop on the desk as Owain shoved his notebook out of the way. Niles caught Leo's wrist as he stepped back.

Leo raised his eyebrows. Niles pressed a little closer.

“Do you have something urgent to do, or do you have a little free time first?” he asked lowly.

Catching on, Owain pushed Leo’s laptop to the corner of the desk too. It wasn’t in danger of falling off if things got a little heated, Niles thought. Probably.

Leo looked between them. “I could probably spare a few minutes.”

Niles’s smirked. He kissed Leo, slow and sweet like they had a million times before, and relished the way Leo melted against him. Before they could forget themselves, however, Niles remembered the window. He extracted himself from Leo’s side to close the blinds.

While he did that, Owain stood and slid into the empty space Niles left behind. He kissed Leo with more fervor than Niles—less technique and more enthusiasm. Leo didn’t seem to mind, however, if the sound he made when Owain pushed him back far enough that he was forced to sit on the edge of the desk was any indication.

Now safe from prying eyes, Niles joined them once more. Owain stood between Leo’s legs, his hands on Leo’s hip and thigh, keeping him from moving too much. The sight of them kissing was enough to make Niles wish he had a camera.

Owain had taken the front, so he came at Leo from a side angle. He began to kiss his way down Leo’s neck, fingers searching for the buttons of Leo’s shirt without looking.

He didn’t crack his eye open again until he felt Owain pull back a little.

“Hey,” Owain said against Leo’s mouth, slightly breathless. “This is fine, right?”

It was an echo. Niles laughed against Leo’s skin.

He felt Leo shift, probably sending Niles a searching look. When he tilted his head back up towards Owain, Niles felt Leo shook his head, exasperated and fond.

“I promise you,” Leo said with the air of a man who felt what he was about to say should have been obvious, “if I didn’t like this, you’d know.”

If Owain meant the same thing Niles had—if he was asking Leo if things were fine in general, not just in the moment—then Leo wasn’t exactly answering the right question. But it was true either way, Niles knew, so he let it slide.

He kissed his way down Leo’s neck and then some.

**Author's Note:**

> Niles and Leo are dating Owain, but like I said earlier, they are doing some pining. They're pining over a past version of their friend who doesn't exist because when you don't have the same memories, you're not going to be identical to how you were in a past life or ten years ago or even last week. Or maybe you are and other people just don't recognize you the same way even if you aren't really that different after all. Maybe they're too hung up on little things. 
> 
> It depends on how much you think experiences make a person who they are or not. Nature vs nurture, you might say. 
> 
> If his name is changed, if his hair is brown, if he eats a few different foods, if the way he speaks has changed but it's in line with the new times--is that really so different from who Odin was? Or is Odin a similar yet ultimately different person to who Owain is, untouched by the apocalypse and time travel and yet who still loves all the same people and has the same passions? Who knows. He's pretty happy with Niles and Leo though. And they're pretty happy with him, even if they're also feeling a nostalgia and pining for What Used To Be too. Two is still kind of a lonely number sometimes.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you got a kick out of this and it made sense! Feel free to leave a comment below or hit me up on my [tumblr!](http://someobscurereference.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Happy holidays! And early Happy New Year too!


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